The voice replied I was safe, for my box was fastened to their ship;
and the carpenter should immediately come and saw a hole in the cover,
large enough to pull me out. I answered that was needless, and would
take up too much time, for there was no more to be done, but let one of
the crew put his finger into the ring, and take the box out of the sea
into the ship, and so into the captain's cabin. Some of them upon
hearing me talk so wildly thought I was mad; others laughed; for indeed
it never came into my head that I was now got among people of my own
stature and strength. The carpenter came, and in a few minutes sawed a
passage about four feet square, then let down a small ladder upon which
I mounted, and from thence was taken into the ship in a very weak
condition.
[Illustration: "SOMEBODY CALLING ... IN THE ENGLISH TONGUE." P. 99.]
The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,
which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the
sight of so many pygmies, for such I took them to be, after having so
long accustomed mine eyes to the monstrous objects I had left. But the
captain, Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, an honest, worthy Shropshire man,
observing I was ready to faint, took me into his cabin, gave me a
cordial to comfort me, and made me turn in upon his own bed, advising me
to take a little rest, of which I had great need.
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